Initial Phone Consultation

Our first point of contact will usually be a 5-10 minute phone call, during which we will briefly discuss the concerns you have that led to your seeking treatment, as well as some basic information regarding your history. This conversation will help us determine whether the services and level of care that I offer will best meet your needs and therefore allow you to make the most of treatment. We will also discuss fees and out-of-network insurance reimbursement if that applies for you. I do not participate on any insurance panels, but will provide documentation, aka superbill, to help in submitting claims if you have out-of-network benefits.

Consultation

Our first visit, or in some cases first few visits, will be consultative. During the initial consultation, we will get to know each other better and work collaboratively to decide on an appropriate treatment course. In this first visit, we will discuss your present and past in greater detail, including the concerns that prompted you to seek treatment, as well as further information regarding your medical history, psychiatric history, personal history, and any prior treatment. Based upon our conversation, I will offer some initial impressions and recommendations for treatment. If we decide to continue to work together, I will set up an account and invite you to join my electronic health record’s Patient Portal.

I believe that my job is to help you to understand your thoughts and feelings. Sometimes, I will recommend medications that I believe will help you to make best use of psychotherapy. The initial consultation will be collaborative. Together, we will start to gain a deeper understanding of the ways your mind works, so that you may start on a path of better health and functioning. Plan to spend approximately 75 minutes in the initial visit.

Ongoing Treatment

Follow-up appointments are scheduled for 45 minutes, so that we will have more time to discuss aspects of your life that may be contributing to your current concerns and symptoms. As my practice focuses on psychotherapy as the mainstay of treatment, all appointments are psychotherapy appointments and may also include medication management.

We will discuss the most appropriate frequency of appointments during our initial visit and on an ongoing basis. While many patients prefer weekly psychotherapy, I often find that meeting more frequently allows us to continue a conversation, gaining an even deeper understanding than might be available in a weekly treatment.

For some, I may recommend psychoanalysis as the optimal treatment for self-understanding. In psychoanalysis, we meet at a frequency of three to five times weekly in order to get a better look at the deeper and less conscious influences on your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. As described by the American Psychoanalytic Association, “psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy are especially suited to people who want to get to the root of long-term problems and patterns that continually crops up and get in the way of living a fulfilled life.”